PENAL REFORM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 292, 10 December 1936, Page 6

PENAL REFORM.

Surely your correspondent Ruby E. Watson' cannot be serious when she writes that the Hon. H. G. R. Mason says we have the best penal system in the world. Recent figures presented to the League of Nations show just the opposite. South Africa '' (Europeans), Queensland, Tasmania, Scotland, England, Ireland, Norway, Sweden. Denmark and Italy are all showing prison populations twice as good as ourselves; whilst many more countries of relative size and education beat ,us handsomely. New Zealand for the past twenty-five years has not progressed one iota in' this matter, as one can see by comparing the fisrures for 1011, when, according to the official "Year Book." the rate of confined persons per 10.000 population, was 7.40, and in 1934 the rate is shown as 7.67. One might well ask what would have happened with those responsible for such a comparison outside a Government organisation. Ask the Government itself or any private employer if there are openings for employment after a period of so-called reformative detention: which will givp yon the answer to the -faith even its supporters can muster up for it. If ytinr correspondent, however, is serious, I think the lady can count Mr. Mason's remarks as being of a purely political character. They are certainly not borne out by facts from other countries, and thi*. of course, is the real reason why the Minister is not anxious for anv inquiry into penal matters. WATCHFUL.